A Little Sax in the Morning
by Caesar Augustus Plutarch
Summary: written in response to a PPMB challenge for a hidden musical talent. One of the three J's reveals his ability to another one summer morning after their senior year.


A little Sax in the Morning  
by CAP

Joey smiled broadly as the door opened. Both Mrs White and both of her daughters Jillian and Debbie were in the foray. Mrs White was a tall lean blonde with a body that more then one player on the football team had admitted to having fantasies about when Jamie was out of earshot. None of the guys Joey's age ever mentioned Jillian. As a freshman without her mother's striking looks, she was beneath the notice of the upperclassmen yet Joey found himself lingering whenever Jillian was around.

"Hi, Joey," she said bestowing a small smile on him. "Enjoying your summer?"

"So far," he replied as her energetic younger sister darted outside without any greeting beyond a quick wave.

"Good morning, Joey," Mrs. White said cheerfully. "I understand congratulations are in order. Jamie said that the University of Winchester has given you a baseball scholarship."

"It's half a scholarship, actually," Joey bashfully replied. "No one gets a full ride in baseball but between it and financial aid and a part time job I should be able to cover all of my expenses. My folks won't have to pay for much if anything."

Mrs White chuckled knowingly. "With a sister on your heels, I sure that's quite a relief for your parents."

"I thought Dad was gonna hug Coach Browning when he explained the aid package they had put together for me," Joey laughed. "All Mom did was threaten me with fates worse then death if I messed around and lost the scholarship."

Mrs White's face sobered as she laid a hand on his shoulder. "Keep that in mind, young man," she said seriously her eyes staring intently into his. "You've been given an opportunity granted to very few of your classmates. You will be able to go places in the future that they cannot simply because you were able to get an education that they could not afford especially from a university with the reputation of Winchester."

Joey nodded slowly. "Yes ma'am, I know and I know if I wasn't good at baseball, if it was just me and my grades alone you know, I could never get into Winchester so I gotta really bust...study hard when I get there."

Mrs White's face lightened. "You better bust ass."

"I will," Joey said. "And what's really cool is that it's only a couple of hours away so Mom and Dad can come see the games sometimes."

"And you can drive home for the occasion weekend easily," Jillian added.

"Ah, yeah, I could, I suppose," Joey stammered.

Jillian hopped outside as Mrs White stepped back into the house letting Joey in. "Jamie, Joey's here. The girls and I are going now," she shouted down the hall before grabbing her purse. "Good bye, Joey. I'm sure we'll see you before you leave for school."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Bye," Jillian said over her shoulder as she followed her mother to the car.

"Come on back, dude," Jamie called as he poked his head out of his room. Joey waited until Jillian was in the car before closing the door with a sigh. His footsteps on the hardwood floor echoed in his ears as he trudged trough the living room and down the hall. Jamie had left his door open.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Jamie asked from where he sat in front of his computer.

"All right, I guess," Joey replied. "What'cha doing?"

"Just a little surfing," Jamie replied. "What brings you here? You're gonna be at work, aren't you."

"Yeah, I am," Joey confirmed as he dropped to the old recliner that sat in a corner.

Jamie noticed his friend's hesitant expression. "What's wrong? Are you feeling okay?"

He watched in concern as an expression akin to pain covered his friend's features. Joey shifted several times in his chair before finally opening his mouth. He started to speak then stopped. After a few moments, he tried again. "We've been friends a few years now, dude. I mean, good friends, you know," he said timidly.

"Yeah," Jamie acknowledged curious as to where Joey was taking the conversation. "Over five years, now. Ever since you moved here during seventh grade."

Joey smiled in remembrance. "That's right. My dad got a job here in January that year."

"Okay, now that we cleared that up, what's on your mind?" Jamie asked.

"It's just...well, dude, I just want to say that you don't have to be embarrassed or anything," Joey replied. "And I hope you're not jealous or mad or something like that."

"Are you coming out of the closet?" Jamie asked.

"What?" asked Joey incredulously. "No! No way. I like girls. You know me."

"I don't know you well enough to guess what you're trying to say," Jamie replied. "Just spit it out."

Joey looked about the room as he took a deep breath. "It's about me getting a scholarship while you didn't."

"Engage your brain. I told you last week that I got a full scholarship," Jamie reminded him.

Joey vigorously nodded his head "Uh huh, you did," he countered. "To Newport University."

"That's right." Jamie answered. "Don't you believe me?"

The pained expression returned as Joey gritted his teeth. "Dude, you're my friend and I want to believe you," he said. "But Newport doesn't have football team and that's the only sport you play."

"Does Jeffy think the same thing," Jamie asked. "That I lied about it. That I made it all up just to impress you guys?"

"Uh, no," Joey began. "I mean Jeffy hasn't figured out that Newport doesn't have a football team. I'm not even sure he knows where Newport is."

"Oh, he's not ignorant," Jamie laughed.

"No, not really but I haven't said anything to him," Joey continued. "Or anybody else. I don't want anyone, you know, to think that you're lying or something."

"Is that all that's been bothering you, Joey?" he asked. "Relax, Dude, if you think about it, I never said that it was a football scholarship."

Joey frowned deeply before a mask of disbelief fell over his face. "C'mon, Jamie, you get pretty good grades especially compared to some guys on the team but they're just solid not great. There's no way you got an academic scholarship."

"No, I didn't," Jamie replied calmly.

"What other kinds are there then?" asked Joey confused.

"Many actually," replied Jamie. "Believe me; I scoured the web looking for anything that I might remotely qualify for. I've filled out more applications and licked more stamps then I want to think about over the last two years."

Joey arched his brows in surprise. Jamie never spoke much about going to a university. To discover that he had been hard at work, diligently trying to find ways to pay for it was astounding to him.

"Okay, so how?" he asked. "How did you get a full ride?"

"A music scholarship," Jamie replied simply.

"Music," exclaimed Joey. "Dude, you're not in the band. You don't play anything and I've heard you sing. Rob Thomas you're not."

Grinning, Jamie made no reply as he stood and walked to his closet. Joey peered around the door in time to see him pull a saxophone from its case. Another unopened case sat on the floor next to it. Jamie sat back down. Almost reverently, he blew a few experimental notes before launching into a solo.

Joey leaned back into the recliner mouth hanging open. He did not play anything but Jamie's talent and refined skill were unmistakable even to a layman such as himself. With no discernable effort, Jamie worked his way through one complex melody before smoothly shifting to another.

Jamie caught the stunned look on Joey's face. Impishly, he winked at his friend while continuing to play. For nearly ten minutes, cool jazz and a little bop swirled around the small bedroom like an aural ice cream sundae.

With one long sustained note, Jamie finished his miniature recital. He nodded his head at his friend's applause before removing the ligature and reed from the instrument. He run a brush down the saxophone's neck for a few moments before he finally spoke.

"I do play an instrument, he said. "Instruments, actually, Alto and tenor sax plus piano."

"Dude, you're good. Real good," Joey said as he shook his head. "But I don't get it. Why didn't you tell anyone? We've been tight for over five years and you never said anything. And how'd you get so good without anyone knowing?"

"Like anything else you get good by practicing," Jamie replied. "It's been a rare day since the fifth grade that I haven't played for at least an hour. Some days, I'd be in here wailing away for five, six, seven hours."

Joey kept shaking his head. "But why the secrecy? I mean, Dude, you rock. That was incredible. Why hide your light under a bushel?"

Jamie tenderly laid the saxophone on his bed. "Cowardice, I guess," he answered. "The desire to fit in maybe. I don't know what you would call it exactly."

"Huh?"

"In the seventh grade," Jamie began. "Jeffy and a bunch of other guys started ragging for being a 'band geek'. Long story short, just to shut them up I went out for the team and made it. By the time high school rolled around, no one remembered that I played in the band once."

"But you kept playing," Joey pointed out.

"Football or the sax?" asked Jamie.

Joey puckered his brow in thought. His lips formed a silent 'oh' when he understood the question. "I meant the sax but yeah, why keep on playing football if the only reason you started was to get Jeffy off your back?"

"I like football," Jamie replied. "And to be honest, I wasn't crazy about marching band. I love to play but precision drilling wasn't my cup of tea."

"Okay," Joey slowly said processing the latest data. "But I still don't get why you kept your playing a secret. A lot of guys on the team play stuff. Some of them even have bands."

"Yeah, they do, "admitted Jamie. "They're rock or pop bands that play covers of _Guys R Boys_ , or _Matchbox Twenty,_ _or_ _Nirvana_."

"Yeah, so?" rejoined Joey.

Jamie grabbed a cd carrier from his computer desk. "I'm not trying to insult you," he said handing the case to his friend. "But do you recognize anybody in there."

Joey quickly flipped through the forty or so discs. "I've heard of _Kenny G_ and _Harry Connick, jr,"_ he said when he finished. "My Mom likes them."

"How about _Miles Davis? John Coltrane? Dave Brubeck?"_ Jamie asked.

Joey shook his head.

" _Anthony Wilson? Pat Metheny? Herbie Hancock? Grover Washington, jr_?"

Joey shook his head again. "No, dude, I've never heard of any of them. Sorry."

"That's another reason I never mentioned my music at school," Jamie replied. "Who listens to jazz at Lawndale High? Bring it up and people think you're talking about the NBA team."

"You know, you could have told me," Joey said. "I wouldn't have made fun of you."

"No, no you wouldn't have," Jamie conceded after a moment. "But I guess the habit got ingrained."

Joey handed the cd box back to his friend. "But how did you get a scholarship? I don't think that colleges have people running around listening at bedroom windows."

Jamie laughed at the mental image. "It would have saved me some money but no, that's not how I got the scholarship. You may have noticed that I disappeared for a while every summer."

"You said that you were visiting relatives," Joey said.

"Partially true," Jamie confirmed. "But for the last five summers, jazz camps took up some of that time. Most of my paychecks went to pay for them."

"Jazz camps?" Joey asked dubiously. "Sports camps I've heard of but jazz?"

"There are all sorts of music camps actually," replied Jamie. "Anyway, I attended the camp in Westlake last year. One of the instructors there passed my name on to Newport U which awards eight scholarships a year to young jazz musicians. Again long story short, I auditioned at the campus a few months ago and last week they told me that I got one of them."

"So you really do have a scholarship?" asked Joey.

"Yeah," Jamie chuckled. "I still have the letter if you want to read it. Although, truth be told, I only got the scholarship because one of the original eight turned one down. That's why it got awarded to me so late."  
"What's really terrific about the scholarship is that I can study any program that I want. It doesn't have to be music. I love jazz but I'm not sure that I want to be a professional musician."

"That's great dude and I don't need to see the letter," Joey said as he stood. "Look, I'm sorry for not believing you."

Jamie stood and accepted his friend's offered hug. "No problem. Knowing what you knew, I can see where you thought what you did."

Joey glanced at his watch. "I gotta run and get ready for work."

"I'll see you out," Jamie replied. "If there's nothing else on your mind."

"No," Joey said walking out of the room. "I'm just, you know, happy for you. Congratulations, dude. Maybe I can hear you play some more sometime."

"Drop by anytime," Jamie replied as he followed his friend out. "And I know that NSU's jazz ensemble travels quite a bit. Maybe we'll get somewhere close to Winchester."

"That'll be cool," Joey said before asking with exaggerated casualness. "Does your sister play jazz too?"

Jamie chuckled perceptively. Joey's interest in Jillian had not escaped his notice. "Not often. Her tastes run more to baroque and classical music. She plays the horn in the Lawndale Youth Chamber Ensemble and like me plays piano."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Jamie replied opening the door. "They have a concert Friday night at the Holy Trinity Church."

Joey stopped on the doorstep. "Look, dude, once again I'm sorry for not trusting you."

"Forget about it, man," Jamie said lightly punching his friend's shoulder. "You had no way of knowing."

"Thanks, Jamie," Joey said, a wide smile lighting up his face. "See ya in a couple of hours."

"Yeah," Jamie said before closing the door.

"See you Friday night too," he added with a quiet laugh.


End file.
